Getaway to the Mountains

Since my DH was having a birthday, we planned a little getaway, heading north on Highway 49 through the California Mother Lode country. We went all the way up past Downieville, to this vista of the Sierra Buttes. I visited the area during the summers of my teenage years. It was just as beautiful as I remembered, with a sunny mild day. Gave DH the camera for this photo.
OK, it was very breezy that day - neither me nor my hair is usually so puffy!DH wanted to see the famous Gold Lake -a subject of legends galore during the gold rush. So up we went, finding snow drifts as we went higher and higher. As you can see, the snow was right down at the lake, and melting like crazy. All the rivers and streams were rushing like mad - very fresh and cold. So no fishing was done, and we couldn't even find a safe place for a little gold panning either. Enjoying the scenery was just fine - the gorgeous colors of nature in the pure air of those high elevations was fantastic. I want to do a quilt with some of those blues!

Being the practical sort, we brought along picnic lunches. This scene of Andy (the dog) with DH was taken after lunch, during an easy hike around this beautiful small lake, the Lower Sardine.
I recall taking off on some big hikes from this vicinity, during my younger years. I actually did get all the way up to the top of those Buttes, on foot! Andy seemed to really enjoy his outdoor adventure, scooting up and over the rocks, under logs and chasing a lizard once in a while. Looks like he did get a little warm and kept trying to jump in the lake.
Back at our hotel we enjoyed this view from our private deck. I loved the view of those rushing waters in the North Yuba River, but also was struck by the wonderful variety of the greens in nature. I have been saying for years that the shades of green chosen for quilts just do not have to match each other - they all look fine together. So I gazed upon the scene and admired our
waterfall, while DH and Andy watched the wildlife. It was wonderfully relaxing and peaceful.
We passed this really cool, really old building right on Highway 49 in a place called North San Juan. This looks like it could become a quilt............

In the next blog I will be talking about the things I learned at the Ricky Tims Super Seminar. Ricky did a beautiful quilt that was a picture of a fabulous building. When I took this photo I had no idea that I would ever attempt one, but now..........

During our visit to Grass Valley on the way to the mountains we found a darling quilt shop, the Sugar Pine Quilt Shop on South Auburn St. They don't have a website yet, but it is not to be missed if you are in the area. I picked up a few more 30's prints (sigh.....can't help it!) for the stash, and had a great conversation with Bonnie, the owner. Hope you can check it out.

The Little Quilts

I love doll quilts and little crib quilts done in civil war era reproductions.
One winter I made at least ten of them, just because they were so much fun,
and gave me such a feeling of accomplishment. So I wanted to share the
experience!
At my little shop,Timeless Calico Designs, I started a Little Quilt Club
back in April. I was fortunate to have two trunk shows from Kathy Tracy on display.

We made the sweetest little friendship signature quilts the first month.............



and we chose the humble but totally charming Shoo Fly for the next month.
Here's my top which I plan to hand quilt this summer.




We met yesterday and had a really nice time working together. The project
was the little baskets from Kathy's book "Remebering Adelia". I admit I
was little afraid of the applique basket handles. But that's what quilting
friends are for! To help! At home I had made the little tubular stem-like
handle and was pondering how to flatten it out nicely. The only thing I could
find that was small enough was a chopstick. It seemed to work ok. At the club
I was introduced to a much more sophisticated tool, the bias bar. wow - pretty slick,
but it did remind me of the old corset stays from my costuming days...............

Anyway, we all shared tips and helped each other out, and by the end of the
session I had made a complete little block. At home again I made several more
little handles so that I can hand-applique them this weekend while I watch
DH do some fishing or gold-panning.






My goal is to start a bucket list over on the side bar of this blog, and it may
just start with finishing up these cute little baskets.

Along with the 30's flower vine strippy quilt, the Block of the Month................

Trying out Applique

I was working away yesterday, and decided it was time for a break.
When I came back into the room, the light was just right for me to get
this photo. I enjoy this room so much. My DH made the furniture by
recycling old store fixtures and I did all the painting - walls, cabinets,
the works. So this was taken from just inside the door.




The room was a bedroom, so there is a closet (hidden) to the right.
I use the closet doors for my design wall. The next picture was taken
after stepping into the room and swinging around to the left.



It doesn't always look so tidy, but I had just put the work of the
day on the design wall before my break.

I've been in the process for about a month now, trying to complete
an ambitious strippy style quilt with 1930's reproductions.
I started with strips of squares but that was a little plain so
I decided to make them tip up.



I wanted to have flowers on panels between the pieced panels.
I am not good at applique but keep on trying anyway. These
flowers were traced to a fusible web (yikes, not exactly my normal
traditional approach) fused, cut out and laid out on the stems.

The leaves were really fun to do, for some reason. It was surprising

how long it took to get one flower panel laid out. The rest of the

stitching in place remains to be done.

The goal is to have four pieced panels separated by three flower panels, and finished with a sawtooth scrappy border.

I find beauty in the print designs and colors of antique cotton calicoes. I don’t mean those ditzy prints from the 1970’s Prairie Look – remember Gunne Sax, peasant skirts, etc? I mean those interesting, dynamic designs and soft natural colors from the hoop skirt era,

which are my first love. I refer to them as the colors of the Civil War, using the time span of 1830-1880.

More recently I have been able to dabble in the 1930's repros. They

are charming and delightful - a real perky look that seems to be just

what's needed during these trying economic times.

OK, that said, I love to sew and I love to look at books full of great photos of antique quilts. And then I love to try to re-create those quilts, from the 1830's to the 1930's.